Karen's Family Condemns 'Evil' Killer

The father of murdered Irish student Karen Buckley has described her killer as "truly evil'' after a man admitted repeatedly hitting her with a spanner and trying to dispose of her body in a bath of chemicals.

Convicted forger Alexander Pacteau, 21, pleaded guilty to the post-graduate student's "senseless and brutal'' murder at the High Court in Glasgow.

The remains of 24-year-old Miss Buckley were found in a barrel on a farm on the outskirts of Glasgow four days after she disappeared from a nightclub in the city's west end in April.

Outside the court, her father John Buckley, who had travelled from Cork for the hearing with his wife Marian, said: "It is every parent's worst nightmare. There are no words to describe what we went through.

"Being told Karen was brutally murdered and having to phone our three sons and tell them Karen was dead was one of the hardest things we've had to do.

"What a waste of a young life, it all seemed unreal, we were devastated.

"All Karen was doing that night was making her way home when she was randomly targeted by and murdered by a cowardly, vicious criminal.

"He is truly evil and we hope he spends the rest of his life behind bars.''

Pacteau, from Glasgow, faces a mandatory life term when he is sentenced on September 8.